Britain's obsession with Zimbabwe must cease
Date: Thursday, November 15 @ 02:34:48 UTC
Topic: Zimbabwe
The Herald
November 15, 2007
EDITOR — The British Government's obsession with trying to isolate Zimbabwe has reached desperate levels.
British Airways, which had been flying to Zimbabwe since the Rhodesian era, was stopped from doing so on the flimsy reason that flying to Harare was proving costly because of fuel and other related economic problems, yet the truth of the matter is that this is part of British play at attempting to isolate Zimbabwe.
The desperation was manifest in the decision by British immigration to deny Jamaican reggae star Luciano's band members transit visas to travel through London.
This proved the British government is racist and xenophobic, and that it doesn't tolerate anyone who says anything good about Zimbabwe.
The European Uni0n-Africa Summit scheduled for Portugal in December has already divided the EU over President Mugabe's attendance with British Premier Gordon Brown saying he will veto it if President Mugabe is invited.
Brown says he will not be comfortable sitting in the same meeting with President Mugabe "because he has run down the economy of Zimbabwe and violated human rights".
President Mugabe has not run down the economy. It is being hurt by the illegal sanctions imposed by the United States and the EU at the instigation of the British government yet Brown continues regurgitating the tired mantra that the only sanctions imposed are a travel ban on President Mugabe and top Government officials.
The question is: Who influenced the International Monetary Fund and World Bank to cut Zimbabwe's lines of credit?
Who is discouraging investment in Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe is now a cash economy which is "extracting blood from a stone", so to speak, as it is surviving on the little foreign currency it is generating from sectors that are still exporting.
Zimbabwe has had to implement unorthodox economics in order to survive yet Brown has the audacity to claim President Mugabe has ruined the economy. What nonsense!
Some British apologists might say I should know that President Mugabe destroyed agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, through the land reform programme.
Such malcontents must remember that the land issue had to be addressed regardless of how it was done, orderly or unorderly. Because of British intransigence, it was fast-tracked.
How were our forefathers dispossessed in the first place? Was the dispossession orderly? Were they compensated?
Food for thought.
Brown talks of alleged human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. What is his definition of human rights abuse? Has he ever paused to think what British troops are doing in Iraq?
Was the torture at Abu Ghraib prison in pursuit of human rights? Why can't Brown give human rights lectures to George W. Bush over his Guantanamo adventures?
When the police arrest some British puppets engaging in orgies of violence, Brown claims human rights have been violated. It is clear that he wants to see the violent overthrow of a legitimate government.
We don't tolerate such nonsense here because we have a democratically elected Government.
Let it be known to Brown and his allies that Zimbabwe will not apologise for embarking on the land reform programme. Zimbabwe is not an appendage of Britain.
Brown can boycott the EU-Africa Summit and watch the proceedings from his little flat at 10 Downing Street.
His absence will not change the price of rice in China.
The British obsession will burst in the near future. Crazy Brown will come to his senses, arikupenga achadzoka.
Campion Mereki
Harare
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